Jökulsárlón , Glacier’s-River-Lagoon.
“Jökulsárlón is one of Iceland’s natural crown jewels, and we’ve even started calling the nearby black beach our Diamond Beach, as the ice chunks lying on it resemble diamonds glistening in the sun.” (from an online guidebook: GuidetoIceland.is)
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We walked over this space and sat (along with countless other travelers) on the lagoon banks.
We speculated, inspected, respected
the spectacular view as ice chunks flowed to sea.
Tourists photographed each other holding bits and pieces of glacial ice. Guides ferried those willing to pay into the ice lagoon for additional haptic pleasures.
I have many images of ice, some with us standing in the foreground.
Ice and sky, a backdrop.
I am intrigued that these images are not reproducible. Every tourist to Jökulsárlón will see a different sea of ice as sun, rain, and wind alter the view. My camera inscribed my experience, my spectacle.
Speaking particularly of cartography and all the recording practices of travelers, Bruno Latour explains that among the properties of two-dimensional inscriptions (like my photograph) is that “all the instants of time and place in space can be gathered in another time an place.” At home, that Icelandic space is framed. Here, now, on the network, this place is framed again.
Diversions in Writing and Place 